19.10.16

There’s Too Much Poverty In Nigeria, Declare A State Of Emergency – Reps Tell FG

As Nigerians continue to groan bitterly under the heavy weight of the
current economic crunch, the House of Representatives has reached out
to the president on what should be done.
The Federal Government has been urged by the House of Representatives
on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency in the fight against poverty
in the country.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, this followed the unanimous
adoption of a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance
by Rep. Muhammed Wudil (APC-Kano).
Presenting the motion, Wudil decried the increasing level of poverty
in the country in spite of programmes designed by the government to
eradicate it.
He urged the government to urgently put in place effective structure
for the implementation of poverty reduction programmes in the country.
He expressed concern that efforts by various tiers of government and
the National Assembly to check poverty had not yielded desired result,
especially with the provision of N500 billion intervention funds in the
2016 budget.

“This has not yielded expected result as there is
continued high rise of poverty in the country,’’ Wudil said, adding that
in spite of poverty-alleviation programmes “50 million Nigerians are
currently living in poverty’’.

He described the situation as a “wake up call’’ on government to rise
up to its responsibilities of providing basic necessities of life for
its citizens.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr Yussuf Lasun, who presided at the
session, referred the motion to the Committee on Poverty Alleviation for
further legislative input.